Fear

Fear

Fear

We love fear don’t we? No? Well, then, explain this to me. Action and Adventure movies gross the most money. Next is Romantic Comedies followed closely by Horror Movies. When I say followed closely, I mean it’s a statistical dead heat according to Statistic Brain. We love Haunted Houses at Halloween. We love the suspense of a good horror movie. We’ve been that way throughout our existence. The fight or flight syndrome is very very real. Fear gets the blood pumping and adrenaline flowing. When the initial shock of fear hits, a lot of things happen in the body. All kinds of endorphins and chemicals flood the body. It’s a natural response. But a lot of people have unnatural fears. They fear things that are engrained from a time that they either couldn’t control or things that really don’t matter. Some people fear success, some people fear failure and frankly, some people fear both.

There are a couple of great movie quotes about fear. One of course is Yoda who said this: “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” I know it’s a little green character in a Sci-Fi movie, but how true that is. If you can conquer your fear, you can prevent much of the suffering you bring on yourself in life. The other quote is for a movie that hasn’t yet been released but I can’t wait to see. It’s from the movie After Earth where the character says “Fear is not real. It is a product of thoughts you create. Do not misunderstand me. Danger is very real. But Fear is a choice.” The thing with fear is, if you don’t conquer it and you live with it year after year, it will age you and cause serious medical problems.

What do you Fear?

Cottonmouth

There are a lot of good reasons to fear things. Fear, when used in a proper sense, keeps us safe. For instance, one day my brother and I were walking toward a river near our house to go fishing. He came running by me screaming a foreign language I couldn’t understand. I took 2 more steps toward the river to see what had scared him and in front of me about 10 feet away was a big cottonmouth snake. This thing was big and was poised to strike and I could see his white mouth and fangs. I froze. I knew I was out of reach of a strike where I was, but, I knew if it uncoiled and started toward me I had to run, but I was ok as long as I could see it. My brother on the other hand, was in the truck with the doors locked ready to go home. I watched the snake for a couple of minutes and it calmed down, lowered it’s head and crawled off in the opposite direction. I tried to get my brother out of the truck but our fishing day was over. Fear had gripped him so hard, he was going nowhere but home. That is a REAL danger, but his fear made him have a completely different reaction than me, just like the quote above said. To be fair, he was probably 15 at the time and I was 25, so, that was likely the reason for our different reactions. We still laugh about that.

So, danger is real but fear is your emotional response to it. We become afraid walking through a haunted house even though we know we are perfectly safe. Some people are deathly afraid of roller coasters or have an unnatural fear of spiders and snakes. I have a tenant who comes by to pay rent and he won’t get out of his car to pay his rent if my little Chihuahua/Jack Russell mix is in the yard. He is afraid of dogs big time. Being afraid of things that can do you harm is a healthy fear. Children learning to crawl will not crawl off a ledge. They know instinctively about gravity and that falling will harm them. That is why amusement park rides are so much fun. They evoke that fear of falling in a controlled way. Adrenaline junkies take it to the extreme with rock climbing, rappelling and sky diving.

Fear – Is it controlling your life?

Fear

I don’t like getting stung by bees. But, I have decided to get some bee hives and we currently have 5 in our back yard and are looking to get more. I’ve been stung 3 times in the last week and a half and I hate it, but that’s a fear that I had to conquer if I want the reward, which is the honey. If you are going to have new life, you are going to have to experience some labor pains. Growing through a fear and conquering it takes effort and a willingness to get the reward on the other side. For instance, some people who have been overweight their whole lives are afraid of working out and eating right because they’ve failed so many times at diets and losing weight and getting in shape. So, they let that fear of failure hold them back. Sometimes, people are afraid to step out and get involved in a business that can change their lives because they are afraid of failure or success. Sometimes people are afraid to get involved in something that is new or uncomfortable because they are afraid of the time it will take to become the best they can be at it so they settle for a life of mediocrity where there is never any sunshine or rain. You should not have a fear of failure because that is how you gain experience, as long as you get back up. And likewise, a fear of success has to be conquered if you want the reward at the other end and to be able to help others achieve the same type of success. Or, you can be normal and stay in your rut. You have a choice. Choose wisely.

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Comments

I have fears everyday…I just choose to overcome them! Life is what we make it, and it is the journey that tells the story of the man. We have so much to share, and so little time to do it. Thanks for all that you do for me and my family.

Americans are afraid of many things that shouldn’t frighten them, writes Barry Glassner in this book devoted to exploding conventional wisdom. Thanks to opportunistic politicians, single-minded advocacy groups, and unscrupulous TV “newsmagazines,” people must unlearn their many misperceptions about the world around them. The youth homicide rate, for instance, has dropped by as much as 30 percent in recent years, says Glassner–and up to three times as many people are struck dead by lightening than die by violence in schools. “False and overdrawn fears only cause hardship,” he writes. In fact, one study shows that daughters of women with breast cancer are actually less likely to conduct self-examinations–probably because the campaign to increase awareness of the ailment also inadvertently heightens fears.

There is another fear in the Bible that has a different meaning. It says to fear God. This is not a fear as in being afraid of God. Fear is used to express a Filial or a slavish passion. In good men, the fear of God is holy awe or reverence of God and his laws, which springs from a just view and real love of the divine character, leading the subject of it to hate and shun every thing that can offend such a holy being and inclining them to aim at perfect obedience.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. It is a reverential fear. The same “type” of fear that keeps you from doing something that will make you get a whoopin’ from your parents. But yes, you are correct.

Lord; Help us know whether our fears are real or mental. Help us to stay calm in the face of danger and to always trust in you. Help us have the courage to face the things we fear that aren’t real threats to us and trust you to help us overcome these mental fears. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

We are so afraid of each of each other, more afraid than we actually need to be. These fears are especially tragic because they so lead us astray. Because we fear the wrong things, we make the wrong decisions. In guarding ourselves against remote and vivid dangers, we make ourselves more vulnerable to other dangers, closer to home, that are so much more likely to leave us dead.

There is another fear in the Bible that has a different meaning. It says to fear God. This is not a fear as in being afraid of God. Fear is used to express a Filial or a slavish passion. In good men, the fear of God is holy awe or reverence of God and his laws, which springs from a just view and real love of the divine character, leading the subject of it to hate and shun every thing that can offend such a holy being and inclining them to aim at perfect obedience.